I am always glad to hear from Christians who aren't dunder-headed boobs. Gotta tell ya, those braying jackasses have poisoned the waters to the point where "Christian" is a dirty word to many of us here. Among my family and friends, hearing someone say "I'm a Christian" will elicit a vigorous eyeroll and the thought, "Oh no, not one of THEM." Imagine what Jesus must make of that effect on people? Yeah, assholes, you're really doing your Savior proud there!
As to the name on the tomb: Nope, it's not a discrepancy at all. It's the fact that Jesus's original name was never written in the Roman alphabet we use until well after his death. The Hebrew alphabet has to be transliterated into our writing, and just like Chinese, a word from Hebrew or Aramaic can be spelled multiple ways when written with our characters. It's still exactly the same name.
And I will say that I think it's very important whether the Magdalene was a prostitute or not. Which she most certainly was not - if you read the Bible carefully you'll find no one ever said she was. That tradition started hundreds of years later, and it's important because she was the only woman known to have traveled and hung out with Jesus, and who was written about as being equal to the other disciples in his eyes. That's far too much legitimacy and power for a woman, decided the later popes, and so the myth of Mary the Prostitute was created, by conflating three different women - Mary Magdalene, the woman taken in adultery, and the repentant sinner - who had nothing to do with each other. The whole point of the deception was to squelch any possibility of a female role model co-eval with Peter and Paul. That, I feel, is a very important debate, and it's relevant to what I commented above because it's another example of Christians diametrically opposing Jesus's teachings and twisting his words into a shape that fits their political and social agenda.
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branchandroot
Thanks!
Date: Wednesday, February 28th, 2007 04:55 am (UTC)As to the name on the tomb: Nope, it's not a discrepancy at all. It's the fact that Jesus's original name was never written in the Roman alphabet we use until well after his death. The Hebrew alphabet has to be transliterated into our writing, and just like Chinese, a word from Hebrew or Aramaic can be spelled multiple ways when written with our characters. It's still exactly the same name.
And I will say that I think it's very important whether the Magdalene was a prostitute or not. Which she most certainly was not - if you read the Bible carefully you'll find no one ever said she was. That tradition started hundreds of years later, and it's important because she was the only woman known to have traveled and hung out with Jesus, and who was written about as being equal to the other disciples in his eyes. That's far too much legitimacy and power for a woman, decided the later popes, and so the myth of Mary the Prostitute was created, by conflating three different women - Mary Magdalene, the woman taken in adultery, and the repentant sinner - who had nothing to do with each other. The whole point of the deception was to squelch any possibility of a female role model co-eval with Peter and Paul. That, I feel, is a very important debate, and it's relevant to what I commented above because it's another example of Christians diametrically opposing Jesus's teachings and twisting his words into a shape that fits their political and social agenda.